Colombia, like any other country, has a history of taking political
gambles, but the country appears to have become addicted to these
gambles.The losses lead to riskier bets, which appear successful in
the short term until reality bites.
Colombia’s independence was to be the first of many bold moves by the
population to steer the country through a better future. In 1821 the
colonial government was deposed, only to be replaced by an oligarchy
that kept the economy stagnant. Fast forwarding past two civil
wars to 1948 and the intransigence of the establishment for commencing
reforms signified a caudillo assassinated, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. This was the precursor to
bet in another civil war between conservative and liberals that left
180,000 dead in ten years. New bets were on a military government in
1954 that was hoped would restore stability, but despite some early
success, the government became increasingly authoritarian, thus leading
to another deposed government in 1957.
Another audacious gamble was to alternate the presidency and share the government
offices equally between the two main political parties, this lasted 16
years until 1974. Stability arrived to the country but at the expense
of the status quo with the same elite governing. This resulted in yet
another political gamble inspired by the romantic ideas of communism
and the tangible developments of the Cuban revolution. Thus, communist guerrilla groups evolved and in 1964
the FARC was born. At the beginning this
uprising, attempting to break the status quo, seemed a reasonable
decision, but history is judging these episodes to have been more
detrimental to the future of the country.
Nevertheless, the gamble of a guerrilla group, named M-19, formed in 1970 bore fruit
when in 1991 a new constitution was written. This brought a more
decentralized, pluralistic, and democratic government together with new
civil liberties. However, this new constitution changed little the
instability in Colombia. Violence continues to this day between various
factions that are financed by North American and European cocaine users
as well as the US government. With these drastic times drastic gambles
came in the form of a safe heaven for the FARC in 1998 to begin peace
talks, which infamously failed in 2002. After a continued losing streak
Colombians took the riskiest gamble of all, which outcome may be too
early to judge; the current government.
In a
democratic country the government usually reflects the virtues and
vices of the people. Therefore, it is not surprising that the
government has become a compulsive gambler on its own right. Among the
questionable bets are: the generous agreement with the paramilitaries
for their demobilization that has failed to end these groups, the
all-out-war against the guerrillas that has led to false positives (or
state crimes?), the economic rewards for blood thirsty assassins from
the guerrillas in order to entice more desertions that has rewritten
the definition for the word “justice”, and the unconditional amity with
the US that has left Colombia all, but isolated in Latin America.
Colombia has made a series of political gambles that may evidence the
short memories and short-sightedness of Colombians, which ultimately
illustrate the level of desperation the country finds itself in. Sadly
in this addiction losing money is replaced by losing people; thousands
upon thousands of innocent dead.
Author Sebastian Castaneda is Colombian studies psychology and political economy at the University of Hong Kong